It’s not the first time a tree offers a window into humanity. Anyone who has read Shel Silverstein’s classic knows that. But, even so, this little video by Amy Krouse Rosenthal says a little something about what we see and what we actually notice. It was filmed this past summer in Chicago…
The Money Tree
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Pretty cool social experiment. I wonder, did you think people might look at the tree and think that maybe there was a catch or that maybe a cop was hiding somewhere nearby? A little paranoid, I know, but some people think like that, I imagine… Will you do the experiment again?
They were only one dollar bills. Would you stoop to pick up a penny?
The third reaction I noticed: people telling other people (pointing, by cell phone). Not exactly altruism or sharing (could be described as gawking or expecting a trick). But there was no swarming of the money tree.
The music soundtrack made me expect that something wondrous or sweet would happen, rather than a war of all against all. I was prepared to see a validation of the goodness of human nature.